Portrait of Angela Merkel unveiled at museum in Berlin

Over months they met secretly in a studio in the government quarter of central Berlin – a young artist and his subject, the former German chancellor Angela Merkel. For hours at a time, while Jérémie Queyras painted her portrait, they bonded, Merkel has said, chatting “about all and sundry”. Sometimes they were silent, or they listened to classical music, taking it in turns to let each other choose the pieces.

The result of what Merkel, 71, called their “little adventure” was unveiled to an invited audience of family, friends and a handful of art critics this week in the neo-baroque Bode-Museum in Berlin.

Famous for its old master paintings and sculptures, the museum is now also a temporary home to the looming image of the former chancellor, clad in a blue version of one of her many trademark blazers with big buttons. She looks a little cramped, her face slightly frayed; a sign, perhaps, that the strain of being in power for 16 years has left a permanent mark.

Queyras, 28, said he would “never have come up with the idea himself” but was persuaded to write to Merkel by an acquaintance, who had bought some of his works and knew the former leader would be searching for a portrait artist.

“I thought: who in the world knows me?” Queyras told Die Zeit. Nevertheless, he sent Merkel a handwritten letter in 2022, enclosing some colour photocopies of his paintings. He waited three years for a reply. When the two met in her Berlin office, Queyras said she ignored his “scruffy sneakers” and gave him the commission, having never laid eyes on any of his original works but saying he had made a “good impression”.